One of you will win
by Becney
Summary: Max is the female tribute from District 10, in the 74th Hunger games, with Katniss. So what if, Rue and Max were allies, so when Katniss asked to allies with Rue, she met Max. Would they all survive? Who would win?
1. Chapter 1

**HEY GUYS! FYI I'm quoting the book in some and then adding Max in!**

(This is from page 241 if you wanted to know)

By late afternoon, I decided to build a small fire to cook the meat, betting that dusk will help conceal the smoke and I quench the fire by nightfall. I clean the game, taking extra care with the bird, but there's nothing alarming about it. Once the feathers are plucked, it's no bigger than a chicken, but it's plump and firm. I've just placed the first lot over the coals when I hear the twig snap.

In one motion, I turn to the sound, bringing the bow and arrow to my shoulder. There's no one there. No one I can see, anyway. Then I spot the tip of a child's boot just peeking out from behind the trunk of a tree. My shoulders relax and I grin. She can move through the woods like a shadow, you have to give her that. How else could she have followed me? The words come out of my mouth before I can stop them.

"You know, they're not the only ones who can form alliances," I say.

For a moment, no response. Then one of Rue's eyes edges around the trunk. "You want me for an ally?"

"Why not? You saved me with those tracker jackers. You're smart enough to still be alive. And I can't seem to shake you anyway," I say. She blinks at me, trying to decide. "You hungry?" I can see her swallow hard, her eye flickering to the meat. "Come on then, I've had two kills today."

Rue tentatively steps out into the open, "If we're allies, then I need to get Max," she said, and I looked at her.

"Why?" I ask.

"She's an ally of mine, she saved me from the rest," she said tentatively.

"She's the girl from District 10, isn't she?" I say and Rue nods, "Why don't we look for her in the morning? I'm sure she's already okay," I say, and Rue slowly nods.

"I can fix your stings," She says.

"Can you?" I ask, "How?"

But before she could answer, I felt a dagger being held to my throat. I realised I'd been too comfortable with Rue, I'd forgotten about my surroundings, the other people.

"Stop Max!" Rue shouted, and I felt the grip on the knife held to my throat loosen.

"Why?" Max asked.

"She's a friend, an ally," Rue begged.

"Can we trust her?" Max asked Rue, who nodded her head vigorously.

I felt the knife disappear, and I stood up, turning around to look at Max. She was beautiful, that I could tell, with sun streaked blond hair, and chocolate brown eyes. I could see pure determination in her eyes, and she held a knife to her side, but it looked as if she wasn't going to use it.

"Maximum Ride, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said, she put her knife in what looked like a pocket on her arm.

"Do you always say that after you try to kill someone?" I asked her.

"Well, I haven't tried to kill anyone yet," she said, meeting my eyes, and there was something trustworthy, something safe about her.

"You haven't killed?" I asked, I'd killed, but I hadn't enjoyed it, I was wondering how she could have survived like that.

"Look, I'm sorry, I was doing it to protect Rue. I'm a little, _over the top_, since my brother was killed," she said.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"And for your information, I don't kill. Yeah, I knock people out, hurt them badly, but I don't kill, because I'm not a killer," she said.

"I think I like you," I said, with a smirk on my face, and I smirked back.

"I like you too," she said, "So are we allies?" she asked, putting her hand forward, for a shake.

"Yeah," I said, shaking her hand, and Rue laughed in the background.

"You two are so alike!" Rue exclaimed, and Max ruffled her hair, before sitting down next to her.

"Have you guys eaten?" she asked, looking at me.

"I have, Rue was just about to," I said and Rue grabbed the piece of meat, and ate it wildly, making both Max and I laugh.

Max looks at me, and then sees my stings, and her eyes shows concern, something I didn't think I'd see in the games.

"Rue, aren't you gonna deal with Kat's stings?" she called to the little girl, she looked up.

"Oops, sorry, I was about to before you nearly killed her," she said, and Max chuckled.

"How did you get them?" Max asked me.

"Tracker jackers, Rue warned me about them," I said as Rue places a handful of leaves in her mouth and begins to chew. My mother would use other methods, but it's not like we have a lot of options. After a minute or so, Rue presses a gloopy green wad of chewed up leaves and spit on my knee.

I sigh in delight as the pain is soothed, and Max rolls her eyes.

"This isn't a spa Katniss," she says and Rue giggles. And when she's done all my stings she sits down in between Max and I, and we look up at the starry sky.

"You should get some sleep, both of you," Max says, "I'll watch."

"What about you?" Rue asks, and Max waves her off.

"I already slept," she said, and Rue, stratified with her answer, curled up at her side. I leant against the rock behind me, putting my trust in Max, that she wouldn't kill us in our sleep, but I doubt she would.

_Hours later_

When I woke up, I could hear a voice, and more distinctly, it was Max's voice.

"I'm sorry, I'm a failure, but I promise, I will protect Rue, just like I couldn't protect you," Max said, and my eyes fluttered open. She was there, looking out at the sky, tears slowly rolling down her cheeks.

"Hey Kat, you're up," she said, with fake cheeriness.

"Who were you talking to?" I asked her, and she laughed.

"I'd like to say Ari, but more likely myself," she said.

"Ari?" I asked.

"Didn't you know? This year the tributes from district ten were brother and sister, me and Ari. We stayed together, teamed up with Rue for a bit, but then the Careers attacked us, and Ari died, a dagger to the gut, saving me. It just goes to show, I'm the biggest failure there is," she said softly, shaking her head.

"You're not a failure, you're the strongest person I know, well, you and Katniss are equal," Rue said, waking up and stretching, "You save me, you knock all of them out, and we escaped together."

"I'm sorry," was all I said, and Max looked at us.

"I promise you, that one of you will win, I'm gonna make sure of it," she said.


	2. Chapter 2

When we were all up, and all our stuff, the little that there was, was in our small rucksacks, we moved away. It would be illogical to stay in one place for a long time; we all knew that the Careers were hunting us down.

We walked in silence, all of us with our own thoughts, but it was mostly because we didn't want to get noticed, and have to fight.

"So, what was your life like, Kat?" Max asked me, and I sighed, remembering Mum and Prim and Gale.

"I live with my mum and Prim, my little sister, and my best friend is Gale, a boy in my district," I said and Max nodded.

"I watched your reaping," Max said and she laughed, "I was hoping you'd be the one to kill me, you seemed like a nice person, quite skilled."

"I would never," I said.

"We're all going to die Kat, someday," Max said, and Rue looked worried.

"What's your life like?" I asked Max, and she chuckled.

"You know Kat, I understand why you say 'live', but I say 'lived'," Max said, and Rue pulled on her jacket.

"Sorry Rue," Max said and she looked up at me, "I live with my mum and sister Ella, they're my blood relatives, and there's Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel. They're like my brothers and sisters, well, Angel is like my little baby girl, and I love them all, so much," she trailed off sadly. I listened and I realised that she hadn't said Ari, maybe she was too sad, I knew from experience that sometimes you think it's easier to make the person never exist, though in the end it doesn't make it any better.

"Hey, no need to get so gloomy!" Max said and she turned to looked at Rue and I and she smiled.

"We need to camp," I said and Max snorted, and mock saluted me.

"Yes Ma'am!" she shouted and Rue giggled.

We found a clearing, and we looked for all possible entrances, and then we dropped our back packs, only getting a blanket out, and we set up a make shift bed.

"I'll take watch tonight," I said and Max sighed, I could tell she was tired.

"We should climb up in a tree of something," she replied and I nodded.

"That one!" Rue said and we all climbed the tree and huddled together.

Soon Max and Rue fell asleep, curling into one another under the blanket, and I felt touched by the scene in front of me, it was cute.

I looked out into the darkness, and I put the glasses on, which Rue had told me were like sunglasses for night.

Then the anthem started to play, and there were two cannon shots, and the pictures of the girls from district one and four flashed up into the sky.

I sighed in relief, Peeta was okay, and maybe he was still with the Careers, as much as I hated the thought. I knew what they would do with him, they'd use him to find me then they'd stab him in the back.

"He's okay Kat," I heard Max say, and she sat down next to me, looking out into the darkness.

**(I'm coping from the book now, page 249 of you wanted to know)**

"Something strange happened. At least, I think it did. It might have been the tracker-jacker venom making me imagine things," I said and Max nodded for me to continue, "You know the boy from my district? Peeta? I think he saved my life. But he was with the Careers."

"He's not with them now. I've spied on their base camp by the lake. They made it back before they collapsed from the stingers. But he's not there. Maybe he did save you and had to run," Max said.

I didn't answer. If, in fact, Peeta did save me, I'm in his debt again. And this can't be paid back.

"If he did, it was all probably just part of his act. You know, to make people think he's in love with me," I said and Max laughed.

"Of course it's all an act," she said and I playfully hit her on the shoulder.

"Yes!" I said and she chuckled.

"You know Kat, you're lucky; you have someone who loves you, enough to betray the people who he allied himself with," Max said thoughtfully.

"Who is it?" I asked her, and she looked taken aback, "Who?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said and she turned away, but I still saw the blush on her cheeks.

"Tell me!" I said and she didn't answer.

"You wouldn't know him," she said softly, "And I know he doesn't like me back."

"I'm sure he does, I mean who couldn't love the invincible Maximum Ride!" I said sarcastically and she laughed.

I looked out into the distance, and the glasses were great! I could see everything from leaves on the trees to a skunk strolling through the bushes a good fifteen metres away. I could kill it from here if I had a mind to. I could kill anyone.

"I wonder who else got a pair of these," I wondered aloud.

"The Careers have two pairs. But they've got everything down by the lake," Max said.

"They're so strong," I whispered.

"We're strong, just in a different way," Max said.

"You are. What can I do?" I asked and Max looked at me like I was mad.

"You got an eleven in your private session; you can shoot any living thing from a mile away; you can tell the difference between a poisonous berry and a normal one, must I go on?" Max said, ticking the things off on her fingers.

"Yeah," I said and I sighed, "But we're all going to die in the end."

"No, not you Katniss," Max said seriously, "You are hope, you can win, you _will_ win."

"Yeah right, they've been _trained_ to win," I said.

"You can feed yourself. Can they?" Max asked.

"They don't need to, you said so yourself, they have all there supplies," I said and Max growled.

"Say they didn't. Say the supplies were gone. How long would they last?" Max said and I looked at her, "I mean, it's the Hunger Games, right?"

"But Max, they're not hungry," I said and Max laughed.

"No they're no, that's the problem," Max agrees and from one look in her eyes I can tell she's formulating a plan. One that isn't motivated by the need for flight and evasion. An offensive plan. "I think we're going to have to fix that, Kat," she said and she turned around and fell asleep again next to Rue, leaving me to ponder over what she said.


	3. Chapter 3

**(I'm going to be following the book from chapter 16, page 251 in case you wanted to know)**

Rue and Max trusted me wholeheartedly. I know this because whenever we stopped talking Rue would snuggle into me and fall asleep and Max actually ate the food I brought. Of course I trust them both as well, we all go hunting together, and we stick by each other's sides all the time.

Needling me, at the very back of my mind, is the obvious. All three of us can't win these Games. But since the odds are still against either of us surviving, I manage to ignore the thought.

Besides, Max has distracted me with her plan, she thinks we should find some way to get into their camp and find a way to destroy their food. I'm sure feeding themselves will be a tremendous struggle. Traditionally, the Career Tributes' strategy is to get hold of all the food early on and work from there. The years they have not protected it well – one year a pack of hideous reptiles destroyed it, another Gamesmakers' flood washed it away – these are usually the years that tributes from other districts have won.

But tomorrow, that's gonna change, Max and I came up with a plan, the perfect plan, and tomorrow they will have to watch their backs.

I was drifting off to sleep, when the boom of the cannon jolted me awake. The sky was streaked with light, the birds were chattering. Rue was sitting up straight next to me, and we looked around for Max, who wasn't anywhere to be seen.

"Max?!" Rue and I called out together.

No, she couldn't be gone, she was a fighter, and she said she was just going to hunt, she would be back soon. She wasn't dead, not Max, knowing her she would be running to us after hearing the cannon shot.

I looked to the gap in the trees, and Max ran thought, a bag of something in her hand, and she looked up at us, relief was clear on her face, and she climbed up the tree to us, and she sat on the branch with us.

"Who do you think it was?" I asked, and I couldn't help but think of Peeta.

"I don't know, it could have been any of the others," Rue said.

"I guess we'll know tonight," Max said.

"Who's left?" I asked.

"The boy from District One. Both tributes from Two. The boy from Three. Thresh and me, and you and Peeta. Then there's Max, that makes nine," Rue said, counting it on her hands.

There was someone else, but none of us could remember who it was.

"I wondered how the last one died," Rue said.

"No telling. But it's good for us. A death should hold the crowd for a bit. Maybe we'll have time to do something before the Gamemakers decide things have been moving too slowly," Max said coldly.

"What's in your bag?" I asked her and she pulled three big eggs.

"Breakfast," Max chirped.

"What kind are those?" Rue asked.

"Not sure, there was a marshy area over that way. Some kind of water bird," Max said.

We ate the eggs, we couldn't cook them because the fire would give away our position, so we ate the insides raw, with a rabbit leg each and some berries.

"Ready to do it?" Max asked smirking, as I pulled my pack onto my back.

"What's the plan?" Rue asked.

"Well Rue, you remember when we did some spy work," Max said and Rue nodded, "We saw that the Careers' let the boy from District three guard their stuff."

"The one who you said you could beat up if you wanted to?" Rue said and I laughed.

"Yes," Max said, chuckling, "I have a plan. I will light a fire, so the Careers' will come after me, leaving the boy from three alone. Rue, you'll be look out, checking that they are coming after me, leaving camp, so that Kat can set off the mines that they placed around the supplies."

"How do I do that?" I asked.

"Simple, make some of their supplies fall," Max said with a shrug of her shoulders.

"How can I tell you that everything's going to plan?" Rue asked.

"Bird calls," Max said and Rue nodded, while I felt confused.

"Oh sorry Katniss!" Rue exclaimed, and she whistled a tune, and Max whistled something back.

"It's a bird call, after you've done your bit, whistle and we'll reply," Rue said.

"What do I whistle?" I asked, and Max laughed.

"Make something up that fits with your scenery," Max said and I whistled a tune, when I finished they both nodded.

"Okay, let's do this!" Max said and she hugged us both, before running away on a different direction.

I smiled and hugged Rue, and then walked in the direction of the Careers' camp, and they sat there, chatting and eating with each other.

A growl left my throat as I watched them, how could they be so happy after everything they'd done? After they killed people in cold blood? It angered me that people could do that, that they could murder and then smile.

Then the leader, Cato, pointed up to something in the distance, and I looked to where he was pointing to see smoke rising up into the sky, Max.

Cato and two other grabbed their weapons and went in the direction of the fire, leaving the boy from three all alone.

I pulled my bow out, and loaded an arrow in it, aiming it at the bag of apple at the top of the pile of the Careers' supplies. I was about to shoot, when I saw a figure run up to the supplies and grab something, and then I recognised them, _Foxface_. She looked around and then ran away, and I aimed my bow again.

I fired, and the arrow hit the top of the bag, but it wasn't enough for the bag to break. I cursed under my breath and I slowly and quietly loaded another arrow and aimed it at the bag. I fired again and the bag broke, the apples fell down the pile and onto the ground.

The boy from district three looked in horror as they bounced into the area of a mine, and the whole pile blew up.

There was a cannon shot, and I realised I had killed him, something I hadn't meant to do, but yet I didn't feel guilty. Did that make me a bad person?

I shrugged off the thought, and I walked back out into the forest, whistling my call, but I got no response.

I continued desperately, frantically searching for Rue and Max, until I heard it.

"KATNISS!" I heard Rue scream and I ran in her direction.

**A/N HEY GUYS!**

**I NEED HELP! Please tell me if you think Rue should die like she did in the books, because I can't decide!**

**16craftytigers: Thanks, I'll keep on updating this story! **

**Becney :P **


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